Michael Smith, of Cornelius, North Carolina, was sentenced October 6 to 18 months in federal prison for a music-streaming fraud scheme that generated more than $8 million in royalties, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced.
U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl also imposed two years of supervised release and $8,091,843.64 in forfeiture. Smith pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
According to prosecutors, the scheme ran from 2017 through 2024. Smith used thousands of automated accounts to repeatedly play songs, generally created using artificial intelligence (AI), on services including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube Music. Spreading the plays across a large catalog helped conceal the activity, prosecutors said.
The Justice Department said the fraudulent plays diverted money from royalty pools that otherwise paid musicians and songwriters for legitimate listening. Inner City Press, reporting from the Manhattan courtroom in New York, New York, independently reported the 18-month sentence.
Radio News Now question: How much of the forfeited money will ultimately reach affected creators? The Justice Department’s announcement does not specify a distribution plan.